"Daddy doesn't work there anymore."

When my daughter first heard that I wouldn't be working down the street from our home in Vancouver, she started crying.  She "wanted me to be close".  Our office moving 12 miles away was too much for her little heart to handle the first time we visited the new office location.

Back in January of this year, our company was acquired by a much larger one based outside of the state of Washington.  A lot of things are new to my co-workers and I these days including a new CEO, a new name, new logo and a large amount of new peers to work alongside.

However, the move was a surprise.  The new company wanted to grow the business here in the Pacific Northwest and were very successful.  We brought on all kinds of new talent to the point of having two people to a desk.  We needed a new space and planned to move somewhere nearby in Vancouver.

But over the course of all the summertime decision-making, plans shifted and our company chose to cross the Glen Jackson Bridge and locate a few exits south of Vancouver in our much bigger neighbor of Portland, Oregon.  The new place will--for the first time--give us our own break room, kitchen and office bikes.  Even the drafters get a separate department with its own door.

Of course, that all comes with a price.  I no longer will be able to run over to my children's school 2 miles away to drop off that important paper.  I won't be going home for lunch two or three times a week when things are slow.  Running out the door 10 minutes before I have to be there may never happen again.  Yesterday we passed the old office location here in town like we do so often in our daily lives and explained what the trucks were doing outside and that daddy doesn't work there anymore.

Instead I'll be in line with the others waiting to cross the bridge. I'll be (im)patiently weaving my way through all the other fathers who can't wait to get home to their little girls and make sure they know that daddy's gonna be there to read you that homework book.  And I'll be thankful for that 16 months of time where life was a little simpler and I got to keep it closer to home.

Goodbye, Vancouver

Hello, Portland